Foxhole Battle, watercolor by Robert Blair
Train and Smoke, watercolor by Robert Blair
Robert Blair: Paintings and Drawings
Main Galleries
A longtime friend and former student of artist Robert Blair, Wendy Warner has spent the last year curating an exhibition of the artist’s work for the Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts scheduled to open August 2, 2011. Some 52 rarely seen paintings and drawings provide an extraordinary glimpse into Blair’s experience as a paratrooper-glider in the 17th and 82nd Airborne Divisions during World War II and his later association and friendship with Charles Burchfield who praised Blair in his journals as one of the only young students whose work he would like to see more of.
The first body of work to be featured at the Hoyt was completed during the Battle of the Bulge, the bloody offensive by the Germans that almost split the Allied Armies in two. Blair received approval of his Colonel to document the disturbing and even horrific scenes of both German and US attacks, provided it did not interfere with his duties. It is possible that these paintings are the only first-hand documentation of the Allied troops countering the German assault on Belgium. Blair says that “… painting under stress had, for me, beneficial results. Working in the dark became a normal procedure – as was drawing and painting on moving vehicles — also, I liked having moving subjects.”
The second body of work to be featured at the Hoyt reflects his post-war life, painting and teaching extensively across the country while remaining in touch with Burchfield. Blair was director at the Art Institute of Buffalo from 1946 – 49. He received two Guggenheim Fellowships which allowed him to travel by motorcycle across the United States, Canada and Mexico documenting the changing geography with fresh perspective. Even Warner chuckled at canvases strapped across the back of Blair’s bike. “I drove to Taos, New Mexico with an unbelievable loaded cycle (people looked at me and gasped, even other cyclists)”, Blair stated in an interview.
Although far from mainstream, Blair’s work has been recognized in numerous prestigious institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Butler Institute of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Following three exhibitions in the Morton Gallery in New York City, the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased his painting Horses in the Rain for its permanent collection.
His greatest contribution, according to Warner, was his experimentation with watercolors. She says his methods are still being copied today.
Now deceased, the bulk of the Blair’s exhibition was borrowed from the artist’s family, his wife Jeanette and their son Bruce, the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, OH and the Warner family in New Wilmington.
Also Featured in the Blair Walkway Gallery:
Patrick Lee: In the Landscape
This series of paintings is part of an ongoing study of the effects of light and color in the landscape. The paintings were done directly from nature, in one sitting, or from studies done in this manner. Working in this way, with conditions constantly changing, forces me to capture the scene in the most direct and simple way possible, this usually means excluding small details and focusing more on the larger effects of light and shadow.
My desire is to give the viewer a sense of the atmosphere and light in the landscape that I felt when I made the painting, and to share the beauty of its natural forms and colors. Over time, these small paintings become more than a record of a place and emerge as a kind of visual journal that brings back memories of a specific moment in time or the feeling of the day. I hope that you enjoy viewing them as much as I’ve enjoyed making them.
Patrick Lee is a professional artist and teacher who has exhibited work at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, OH. , the State Museum of Pennsylvania, and the Westmoreland Museum of American Art. Lee’s work is included in many private collections as well as the permanent collection of the Saint Vincent College and Archabbey. He currently resides in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife, Krista.